Considering that he was born and raised in Germany, Citec’s new Managing Director in Germany, Christian Henssler, is very familiar with Finland; he has Finnish relatives and, as a child, he spent his summer vacations in Finland. Moreover, he previously lived in Finland for two years when working at the Finnish consulting and engineering firm Pöyry.

Citec was a new name to Henssler when he was approached by a headhunter in the spring of 2015. After meeting Citec’s CEO Martin Strand a couple of times he was on board.

“Martin Strand had a clear vision, which appealed to me directly. I think Citec’s concept with local engineering close to customers together with the Indian resources is a real strength. It really differentiates us from the competitors, as smaller engineering companies in Germany are traditionally very local.”

Christian Henssler is leading Citec Germany since August 2015 and his task is to build something completely new. Citec has approximately 90 employees in Germany, working mostly in the engineering of rail vehicles and aircraft galleys. Henssler’s task is to add completely new business areas to the company; plant engineering for the chemical, energy, oil & gas and metallurgic sectors.

“We are working on three fronts simultaneously. Firstly, we need to secure more projects in the current business areas, and secondly we need to win projects in the new business areas. This work is steadily developing and a lot of groundwork with potential customers has already been done. Thirdly, we need to be closer to our customers and further develop the organisation to ensure that the right competences are available.”

Citec is currently looking at two additional new locations in Germany; Frankfurt and Munich. The presence at these locations would preferably be established through acquisitions of small engineering companies with good references.

“The market in Germany is promising as there is a realignment going on in the energy sector. Changes in legislation will have an impact on decentralised power generation.”

Although Christian Henssler’s new task is certainly a challenging one, he has always been ready to take on new challenges during his career. Originally from Germany, Henssler has lived and worked in ten different countries on several continents.

“Working abroad for 16 years was not something that I planned. But I was always promoted to interesting jobs that were easy to accept, especially as I was supported by my wife and two daughters who wanted to come along for the new adventures.”

For the past two years, Henssler has been back in Germany, and he is slowly adjusting to the weather as well as to the German bureaucracy.

Of all the business cultures Henssler has been acquainted with during his career, the Finnish culture is one of his favourites.